IBL News | New York
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, warned of the imminent danger posed by superhuman intelligence to civilization. This manager is one of the most vocal moguls about AI risk.
“Humanity is about to be handed almost unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether our social, political, and technological systems possess the maturity to wield it,” wrote Dario Amodei in a 38-page essay. “I believe we are entering a rite of passage, both turbulent and inevitable, which will test who we are as a species.”
Currently, AI handles 90% of the company’s computer programming.
However, he insists he’s optimistic that humans will navigate this transition, but “only if AI leaders and the government are candid with people and take the threats more seriously than they do today.”
In his essay, “The Adolescence of Technology: Confronting and Overcoming the Risks of Powerful AI”, Dario Amodei makes statements such as:
- “AI will disrupt 50% of entry-level white-collar jobs over 1–5 years.”
- “I think the best way to get a handle on the risks of AI is to ask the following question: suppose a literal ‘country of geniuses’ were to materialize somewhere in the world in ~2027. Imagine, say, 50 million people, all of whom are much more capable than any Nobel Prize winner, statesman, or technologist. … I think it should be clear that this is a dangerous situation — a report from a competent national security official to a head of state would probably contain words like ‘single most serious national security threat we’ve faced in a century, possibly ever.’ It seems like something the best minds of civilization should be focused on.”
- “There is evidence that many terrorists are at least relatively well-educated. Biology is by far the area I’m most worried about, because of its very large potential for destruction and the difficulty of defending against it.”
- “China’s government is currently autocratic and operates a high-tech surveillance state. AI-enabled authoritarianism terrifies me.”
- “AI companies control large datacenters, train frontier models, have the greatest expertise on how to use those models, and in some cases have daily contact with and the possibility of influence over tens or hundreds of millions of users. They could, for example, use their AI products to brainwash their massive consumer user base, and the public should be alert to the risk this represents. I think the governance of AI companies deserves a lot of scrutiny.”
- “There is so much money to be made with AI — literally trillions of dollars per year.”
- “Wealthy individuals have an obligation to help solve this problem. It is sad to me that many wealthy individuals (especially in the tech industry) have recently adopted a cynical and nihilistic attitude that philanthropy is inevitably fraudulent or useless.”
- “Humanity needs to wake up, and this essay is an attempt — a possibly futile one, but it’s worth trying — to jolt people awake.”